ROOM FOR YACHTSMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 10

ROOM FOR YACHTSMEN.

The yacht and launch owners who are to lose the ground they have been using at Freeman's Bay deserve sympathy in the plight now facing them. It is true they have not had any real security of tenure, but they have been left undisturbed for years, making the task of finding a new hauling-out ground an unpleasant one. The Harbour Board shows itself disposed to meet the wishes of the yachtsmen as far as possible, though for financial reasons it must dispose of the ground which they are being forced to quit. The board should do all it can for them. I'ollowers of aquatic sports have a special claim on the board, since it controls all the foreshore, and the mooring grounds as well, so that the future of yachting and launching is wholly in its hands. It has been freely acknowledged by representative yachtsmen that the board has done much for them, and they look to it to consider their interests still. This should be done. The small pleasure craft and their crews have always been a notable feature of the Auckland Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. Yachting and launching are an exhilarating and a health-giving pastime. They deserve every encouragement, for, apart from their social worth, the war years proved them of no small national value. Incidentally, perhaps more than any other form of sport, they are of importance to local industry. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Harbour Board will deal with the yachtsmen as liberally as it possibly can. Admittedly, with all the work in progress on the waterfront, it is not easy to make provision for the great fleet of small craft that must have some resting place during the winter season. However, some site can surely be found for them, and, it may be suggested, some better place than the area at Mechanics' Bay, where the close proximity of the railway yards will have a detrimental effect on the seasonal work of repainting and refitting.